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Bloomberg
The US imposed duties on imports of aluminum foil from China, ratcheting up trade tensions between the world’s largest economies before President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing next month.
The Commerce Department said it would impose preliminary import duties in the range of 96.81 percent to 162.24 percent on Chinese aluminum foil, saying the goods are being sold at unfairly low prices.
In August, Commerce imposed preliminary duties on Chinese aluminum foil, ranging from 16.56 percent to 80.97 percent, citing state subsidies for the domestic industry that disadvantage American products. The move indicates that the Trump administration intends to keep up the pressure on China as its efforts to shrink America’s trade deficit have seen little success.
The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group, representing US producers, is the petitioner in the countervailing duty and an anti-dumping case.
The decision on anti-dumping duties had been postponed earlier this month to allow more time to determine whether China should be considered a non-market economy, which could give the US more flexibility in how they calculate tariffs to impose on Chinese products. Commerce will make a final determination on anti-dumping on February 23. Trump has cited the US’s roughly $350 billion trade deficit with China as evidence of the uneven playing field, and he’s vowed to crack down on unfair trade practices. Yet so far, the administration has failed to deliver on tougher measures as it seeks stronger cooperation from China to combat North Korea.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has launched a probe into China’s stainless steel flanges for alleged unfair subsidies, while the US Trade Representative is investigating China’s intellectual-property practices.
In addition, Commerce is examining aluminum imports from China and other foreign nations under the seldom-used Section 232 of the 1960s trade law that allows for tariffs on imports that pose a national security risk. Trump is scheduled to travel to Asia including stops in China.